Elaine Walker – ‘No Terrestrial Road’ [Album Review]

Underground electronic musician Elaine Walker recently released her long-player, No Terrestrial Road, a mesmerizing microtonal (xenharmonic) music collection.

Along with being a musician, Walker is the author of a 300-page physics/philosophy book, inventor of the vertical keyboard, a published research mathematician, and a black-belt martial artist. She’s been involved in NASA-funded humans-on-mars research and spent five summers in the High Arctic journaling about NASA-funded “Mars Missions.”

She founded her all-synth band ZIA to promote the idea of humans in space and demonstrate the spellbinding sound of microtonal music.

Inspired by the realization that there is no terrestrial path between certain points without venturing into imaginary spaces, No Terrestrial Road is the sonic exploration of dimensions beyond our reach and the speculative future of humanity intertwined with the mysterious existence of aliens. Walker’s obsession with extraterrestrial life constructs the thematic core of the album.

No Terrestrial Road travels into uncharted territories using various equal temperaments and the extremely unique Bohlen-Pierce Scale, a harmonic, non-octave scale.

The album encompasses ten tracks and begins with “Eleven (11edo),” which blends spacy dance elements with thrumming, fluctuating synths that form a futuristic soundscape.

High points include “Flow Field (16edo),” tinted with aromas of jazz and psychedelic, luminous textures, spinning and percolating on gentle tones. There’s a delightful gliding-through-space feel to the melody, evoking an otherworldly sensation.

“Matter Over Mind (10edo)” provides a more conventional EDM flow – a pushing, mid-tempo rhythm topped by chromatic synths and distant alien voices. The title track offers listeners a traditional dance beat and ultramodern waves of retro-flavored synths exuding dreamy, kaleidoscopic surfaces.

Elaine Walker in 2024, photo by Elaine Walker

“Involution (Bohlen-Pierce Scale)” merges alternate tunings with balancing melodic tones. The result is slightly discordant yet hypnotically pleasing in a fabulous way, i.e., singularly atypical while simultaneously familiar.

The album concludes with “Don’t Leave My Planet (22edo),” featuring dual layers of harmonic colors, one dark and pulsating, the other gleaming with coruscating fibers.

At once retro and avant-garde, No Terrestrial Road expands on the tenets of music theory, delivering an unparalleled auditory experience.

No Terrestrial Road Track Listing:

1. Eleven (11edo)
2. Vultan Valley (15edo)
3. Otherworld Express (15edo)|
4. Flow Field (16edo)
5. Matter Over Mind (10edo)
6. Inner Alien (17edo)|
7. No Terrestrial Road (14edo)
8. Involution (Bohlen-Pierce Scale)
9. Invaders (10edo)
10. Don’t Leave My Planet (22edo)

Run Time: 46:22
Release Date: March 14, 2024
Record Label: Independent